The Student Government Association met on Tuesday, Oct. 30, with one major focus: Pass a budget resolution for the next academic year.
Members of the senate deliberated for about 40 minutes, as questions arose about the best way to appropriate funds before the resolution ultimately passed with a 22-1 vote.
Currently the SuperFund, BucFund and SAAC fund are funded with $20 of every student’s activity fees, which are paid by students as part of their tuition.
The proposal, SSR-18-001, aimed to increase that by $20, to $40, and divide it up by giving 75 percent to the SuperFund and 12.5 percent to both the BucFund and SAAC fund. There was an attempt to amend the bill, which would have changed the allocation of funds to 70 percent for the SuperFund and 15 percent for each of BucFund and SAAC fund, but it was voted down by a 17-6 margin.
SAAC fund money goes to annual operational costs for student organizations while BucFund covers one-time events on campus. The SuperFund, covers other major expenses used to provide better activities for students. Increasing the budget to provide better events for students was a major reason SGA wanted to pass the increase. More specifically, to provide a major boost to the concert budget.
Currently, there is about $133,000 allocated to concerts and under the new resolution that number would jump to roughly $327,000 per semester for each concert, in an attempt to bring in bigger-name artists.
“It would be huge [to get the extra money for concerts],” SGA Executive Vice President Noah McGill said. “Right now we’ve got around $130,000 for concerts, but that’s nothing for securing big-names. Which is unfortunate, but that’s just how it is.”
It is important to note that the proposed fee increase, would not lead to a tuition increase for students. Every academic year tuition increases for all students by about three percent — this year’s increase was about 2.91 percent, according to WJHL — the $40 would draw from what is already being paid by students, just increasing SGA’s share.
“The increase will happen, it’s just about allocating a section of that increase for us instead of something else,” McGill said.
While the increase appears drastic, McGill believes it is reasonable and that they will get it passed with little issue.
“I’m confident that we will get money out of this fee increase,” he said. “Whether it’s exactly what we want or not, I’m not sure, but I’m pretty confident we’ll get what we requested because we haven’t had a real increase in about a decade.”
